Alpha and Omega = Frustration and Dissapointment
BIOMECHANIK
✭✭
in The Bridge
So I was really excited about this weeks event. I finally dusted off my 1* Dr Hipocrates and Fully Equipped him. And I was finally gonna get to use my 2/5 Agent Janeway in an event. Totally looking forward to adding a star to Janeway and hopefully adding a couple stars to Hipocrates, so he can actually be usefull.
But to be honest I don't know how either of those is gonna happen.
There's no way I can hope to get 400,000 Points to get another Janeway and with all the people chasing Agent Janeway there's no way I'm gonna rank anywhere near whats needed to add even one star to Dr Hipocrates.
So I'm kinda left feeling like what the hellps the point.
Even with a well developed crew to round out the event crew...
1/5* Niners Sisko, 4/4* Disguised Tuvok, and 1/4* Assimilated Tuvok. I just don't see how I can possibly reach those rewards thresholds.
Am I missing something, am I totally wrong?
For those of you do hit 400,000 points in a Faction event, what's it actually take?
But to be honest I don't know how either of those is gonna happen.
There's no way I can hope to get 400,000 Points to get another Janeway and with all the people chasing Agent Janeway there's no way I'm gonna rank anywhere near whats needed to add even one star to Dr Hipocrates.
So I'm kinda left feeling like what the hellps the point.
Even with a well developed crew to round out the event crew...
1/5* Niners Sisko, 4/4* Disguised Tuvok, and 1/4* Assimilated Tuvok. I just don't see how I can possibly reach those rewards thresholds.
Am I missing something, am I totally wrong?
For those of you do hit 400,000 points in a Faction event, what's it actually take?
1
Comments
Alarms every three hours through the night and depleting your time reducers sadly
This is a tough one if you don't have the event crew already FF/FE.
I would still try and go for 400k it is still possible but focus on quality rather than quantity.
As far as shuttle bonuses and time reducers go, I do have a lot saved up. 300 premium boosts unopened and 40+ of the Rare 10 packs. I just have the feeling that I'd run through them all and then stall out at 250 or 300K and have wasted them.
And the alarm thing every 3 hours through the night is just not gonna happen. Sleep and life are just too important. Lol
So, like I said...
Alpha and Omega = Frustration and Dissapointment
I guess that's what you get when you play a game that is designed to **tsk tsk** money from your wallet every week.
The last time I went all-out in a Faction event, I went through about 100 3* time boosts...I did, however, have a good stable of bonus crew to rely on.
- You should be levelling Maquis Ro immediately if you do not have her ... she will be of use, even as an (almost FE) 2/4 if those are your event crew.
- Next time you know there's a faction event coming up, try to get the 5* the previous week ... Bartender Tuvok has been excellent for me. The previous event was hybrid, so not out of the realm of possibility for even f2p to rank top 1500 (i.e. me).
- Unless you are willing to spend a lot of resources, time boosts etc., or time (every three hours), then reaching 400k will be difficult no matter what, it all has to go perfectly for you ... I failed one of my first overnight shuttles (90% ... doh) so I'm already around 6000 VP below my max.
If you have very little event crew then it will be even harder for you.
- I noticed you're missing a number of DIP event crew (Agent Janeway is your only one - other good options Tuvix, Gabriel Bell etc.) ... DIP is one of the most common skills, so that means you're relying on non-event crew ... if you then apply a 3* boost to DIP you don't get as much "bang for your buck" as it were.
- Lastly ... yes, as a 2/4 Ro would make a difference and as a 3/4 she'll be even better ... I doubt you have many crew with 1700+ SEC base ... she has that as a 2/4 (583*3 - without starbase etc. bonuses). Your crew looks like it needs all the help it can get.
First question, why are you saving boost packs? Just open them to see what you get. It's not like crew where you need to worry about space or waiting for the next portal refresh. There is no reason to not open your packs and then have the exact boost available for use.
Second question are you maximizing ad doubles/ad warps on Thursday. 40+ may seem like a lot, but you can get 18 a week without sacrificing sleep or buying extra. So you're only talking 2+ weeks worth of boosts.
Third point, Noah is available down to 5000. There will be less than that who clear 400k. Keep pushing and you'll be able to get at least another copy of Noah.
Fourth, this game is a sprint not a marathon. Yes it looks rough, but you're competing against players with a lot more bonus crew from playing the game longer. Go get your 3/4 Ro, add an extra star or two on Noah, then next time one of them are bonus crew you'll have more options to use on your shuttles.
You need a decent crew
I have Ro and Noah FFFE, along with Arichiana 5/5*,Tuvix, Undercover Tuxox, Coffee Janeway, Mirror Janeway a host of 1/5 or 2/5* Siskos. Even I am struggling to keep up with top 1500; this event does seem slower paced than previous ones.
Coupled with this, you'll need boosts or shuttle tokens.
I don't have Katrine so I am not bothered about the last threshold, but it would be nice to get the Portal Pulls.
I've done this calculation before:
- Disregard Thursday shuttles, i.e. ramp up VP.
- Total number of overnight shuttles = 16 for 8000VP per shuttle success = 16*8000 = 128k VP
- Total number of 3 hrs shuttles at 4000 VP is 69 ... send at 9am, 12, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm send overnight at midnight = 69*4000 = 276k VP
- Total VP (without ramp up) = 128k + 276k = 404k VP.
So, with 100% success you can just scrape it to 400k by the end of the event ... I didn't include Thursday VP but that can be around 10k (depending).
Lets use 404k though ... at an 80% shuttle success rate it means you actually make about 324k ... so somewhere you need to make up the 80k ... which means you need to send out an extra 25+(!) shuttles at a success rate of 80% (20 shuttles make 80k, but that would need 100% success ... where (3*) time boosts actually do not help your success rate).
And just as an indication ... I'm currently sub-1000 ... with a standard ramp up and no extra boosts/shuttles run whilst failing one overnight (i.e. just your average player) ... you should easily be able to add stars to Noah by just sending out the standard shuttles every 3 hrs and one batch overnight ... if that is enough to make it to 400k? Probably not, I don't think I will (but I hope I do).
Key requirements:
- 13 time boosters (11 x 3* & 2 x 4*) to get to 3500 point missions within 15 minutes of the event starting
- deep roster of crew (with shared crew) to fill 4 x 4000 point shuttles (14 event crew minimum) that are all over 90% with 3* skill boosts
- set alarm every 3 hours for 4 days, day and night
- enough merits to be able to be strategic with the 4 missions you constantly re-run (let the other missions sit idle until they expire every 12 hours)
This approach will allow you to easily clear thresholds, and should be competitive for at least the top-1500. Sometimes it may take another 4 or 8 time-boosts at the end of the event to ensure you finish inside the top-1500.
What does it take to hit 400k?
Well, if you do the math, the event is 96 hours in length, total. From that, you have to assume that the first 90 minutes you spend doing kickstart to get up to 3500k shuttles and then burn really good time reducers to get ahead beyond that.
So right off the top, let's knock 4 hours off the clock - 92 left - and you're at, let's say, 6600VP. Only 393,400VP more to go.
From this point, you need to be on 4K value shuttles. You need to send 4 shuttles every 3 hours like clockwork - set alarms, anticipate, be prepared. Obviously it takes a few minutes to get your shuttles back, restaff them and resend them, so the 'every 3 hours' math conveniently leaves off those extra few minutes - so let's just knock 2 more hours overall off your remaining clock - and now you have 90 total. Hey, that's an even number!
So shuttles with no time reducers (the worst-case strategy here) running every three hours for the next four days - and never failing (ha!) will net you 480k VP. It will also likely land you in the top 1200ish ranks at the end.
Can you do this 'faster' with time reducers? Yep! Can you do this despite knowing you're going to fail 10%ish of your shuttles? Sure!
Sadly, the crew you described are going to have a hard time supporting 4K shuttles for 4 days and not using skill boosts to compensate - so I don't think you can use all 4 shuttles (or even 2 for that matter) with time reducers.
Can you do it? Absolutely. Is it hard work? Yep. Is it meant to be? Sadly, yes.
Problem with leveling Ro is that I'd have to freeze crew to make room for her. Then I've spent resources on 3 copies of her which I can't freeze, on a card I don't really want, and after Monday won't be able to use.
Ru'Afo for that Eng slot
Cornwall as Dip/Med cover for Noah as I usually put him straight in the Med/SCI Seat,
Bell Riots Bashir is off voyage duty too slotting in the single MED seat
Interfaced La Forge (thank god I imortalised him) is Dip back up.
Haven't used Katrine once which is also a shame.
That Georgiou was threshold (4 weeks ago) ... so at 120k VP you had 3 copies ... don't want to sound crass ... but if it took you a lot of effort to get there just imagine what 4x the VP will require.
Maybe you just set yourself an unrealistic goal.
One thing - I simply do not agree that you need to wake up every 3 hours during the night to rank for the 5* and/or hit the 400K threshold. It certainly depends on your crew depth and shuttle success rates and so on, but there is no need to sacrifice sleep to get there. This game requires enough of our attention during the day. Unless you are shooting for top 10 finishes... sleep!
Not to be "that guy", but of course AviTrek meant that it is a marathon and not a sprint.
There was a time when I could not fathom what it took to be able to send 1800 vp shuttles at better than 60%. These days, I'm annoyed when my fourth best 4000 vp shuttle is under 90%. It just takes time, and crew accumulation. Find a way to create space for any main cast or semi-main cast characters until you build up a deep roster of them. Roster depth is ultimately the key to success in faction events. In this event, having Ro would have (and will) help you. But you could live without her if you had a deep set of Siskos, Janeways, and Tuvoks.
Thanks for the breakdown. That actually helps to give me some realistic expectations and ideas of what I need to do. One huge hole in the plan is that I only have 3 shuttles and no prayer or getting a 4th. 2500 Dilithium is way beyond my meager F2P reaches.
I do use the time boosts in the first 15 minutes to race through a whole bunch of missions but I don't go all the way to 4000vp shuttles. Knowing I wasn't gonna hit 400k I was a little lax and haven't even hit the 3000vp ones yet. Lol
Been playing for about a year and a half and was finally thinking I had a halfway decent roster. Lots of main cast crew, lots of the best 4* crew, a bunch of them at 3 & 4*, even a healthy selection of 5*'s. Lots of Starbase and Chryo bonuses also. But when it comes to Alpha and Omega, that all means squat. Real slap in the Face when I think of the time I've spent on this game. So, just a little Dissapointed.
Your info however does give me hope that maybe someday I can reach those levels.
And on the Section 31 Georgiou topic. With all the event crew I raced up to 120k pretty quick. A lot quicker then I ever thought. So I was basically able to end my event time a day and a half early. So even if I doubled the score of that event from 120k to 240k, I'm still way off the the 400k mark.
A good way to manage crew space and build your dilithium bank is to immortalize and freeze 1-3* crew. Even if it seems like a waste of crew space, time, effort and resources, the 750 dilithium achievement rewards are worth it (especially as F2P, I would think), and should help you eventually acquire that essential 4th shuttle!
This game is about building crew. How many times in the past have you made a similar decision? How many Siskos, Tuvoks, or Janeways do you not have today because you didn't want a 3/4 you coudldn't use after the event.
If there is someone else to freeze, freeze them. Ro will help you in this event and then she can drop from any free portal or a voyage. You might get lucky and get a 4th copy on a Voyage now, or maybe she won't drop for you and she'll sit at 3/4(I've sat on her for 2 years since the first Alpha and Omega). But if you refuse to level/keep her now, then she won't help this event and if that 4th copy drops it'll be a random 1/4 instead of a 4/4.
If you don't want to race to 4k, then save your boosts in general. Open all 24 missions, run them all at 1 min each. After 10 minutes when you're done you'll be at 1800 VP and have spent 0 boosts. Then you can use your boosts when you need them the most.
Also, you ended your event a day and a half early. That means every speed boost you used to race to 120k was wasted. You could have hit 120k over the next day without using any boosts and had those boosts for now. It' again about planning your boosts and using them when they'll make the most impact.
Lastly, the 400k threshold is supposed to be hard. It was added for experienced players who were clearing threshold early. Don't worry if you can't reach it. Get your 3/4 Ro, try to add some stars on Noah, and know that you're improving your crew. Then those crew will be available to help you in a future event and eventually you'll be able to reach that 400k target.
Rare crew I need 14 more for top reward/Dilithium bonus. 130 total Imortalized.
But like people have said...
It's a marathon and, sadly I'm realizing I'm only half way there instead of 3/4.
Digging a ditch is hard work. Subsistence farming is hard work. Teaching children is hard work. This is a game, so I fundamentally don't understand how "hard work" belongs anywhere in the experience.
No disrespect intended to anyone that prioritizes this game over sleep and life's other responsibilities, but this is a ridiculous benchmark. And that for a single star of an older legendary that isn't particularly useful outside of Janeway events. Besides which, this is obviously a small fraction of the player base that enjoy this advantage that is not even remotely derived from "hard work".
Sure you can be a resource hoarder and stock up enough boosts etc., but this still isn't a sustainable strategy for people playing events every week. Then again the question is why expend so much resources for a weak card at a VP level that still won't net a top 1500 finish?
So what we're left with is DB expects the rest of us to have spent money to make it to 400k (to the tune of around $25). If it was a star on the stat creep new release, then I can see a case for the value proposition. Since it's not, clearly this is DB continuing to push frustration levels to the max and taunt its players.
Y'all wonder why there's so many whiners, complainers, and rage posts on the forum? This is the result of choices made by DB - they have designed this experience into the game. People that are dissatisfied have a tendency to make poor choices when processing the resulting emotions. You can talk about personal responsibility, self-awareness, and confirmation bias to the upset masses til you're blue in the face - it won't ever change the root cause of their dissatisfaction (it's also a form of trolling that is more likely to exacerbate bad behavior).
That said, kudos to all in this thread for bucking the standard trend of dissatisfaction posts. This is Exhibit A for why a Threshold at 400K is poor UX.
To be fair, the expanded threshold rewards were a long-time request by players here on the forums (hard to believe I've been playing for over 2 years and feel like one of those long-time players now). Too many players were clearing thresholds within the first 2 or 3 days of a 4-day event, so DB listened and provided additional rewards as stretch-goals. They were never intended to be attainable easily or by all players.
Having said that, I wish they would do the same with community awards during galaxy and hybrid galaxy/other events. It's frustrating when the community invests enough collective time and resources to quickly attain all the community awards, sometimes within the first 24 hours!
It's sustainable for people with adwarps. I place top 1000 every week without spending money on events. The new ticketless adwarps for Cadet missions have made it even easier to do so.
And I think you've misinterpreted "hard work" - in this context, it means "challenge". Some people like some challenge in their video games, rather than just be allowed to win no matter how badly you play.
Part of the marathon is keeping 3/4 (or less) crew ...
Case in point ... with next week's event notice up ... your 3/4 Ro will be bonus crew there too (Bajoran trait) ... so much for being "useless" after Monday, but hey.
The point is ... freeze when you can to accommodate new crew, you never know when they'll be useful ... I'm sure you've probably airlocked Resistance Shakaar a billion times etc. because they seemed useless at the time ... and yeah, he's not great, but he counts none-the-less towards immortalisation achievements and collections (Veteran).
Modified kick start. Open 24 shuttles. Run 3 1-min S31 Shuttles. Open 3 10min S31 shuttles with Basic Reducers. Run 5x 1 S31 minute shuttles. Open 8x 1.5 hour S31 shuttles with 3* reducers. Run remainder of 1min shuttles.
This puts me at 2750 VP shuttles. This saves on reducers and the difference in VP is minimal.
After hitting 4K shuttles I run them every 3 hours. I only run 3 seat shuttles. Currently running Terran and S31.
All the 3 seaters for those two factions have SCI seats on them and I run 3* skill boosts for SCI. Which I have way too many of.
I get up in the night once for shuttles. I do not run 9 hour shuttles.
I do have 12+ bonus crew including 3/5 Janeway, 3/5 BarTuvok, 1/5 BarTuvok (from squad), 4/4 Ro and 4/4 Noah. It makes things faster for sure but I'd run the same strat regardless of crew. I only use bonus crew since they work better with skill boosts.
This is my standard strategy for faction events that I don't care about. Strong placement nowadays does require more time reducers, bonus shuttles and/or reward doublers.
The only time I spend money on events is buying event crew packs to get the 4th star on the threshold reward crew.
Since all factions have same missions, you may want to run two factions three seaters. That will be two set of identical three seaters one for each faction. (Only need two of the three factions.)
This faction event is not normal. Since each faction has the same seat arrangement as far as crew skills. Do not expect that in the future.
Also you may not want to time reduce your weaker shuttle or shuttles, so you would stat boost those.
Edit: if you have dil maybe take a chance on one x10 event pack.
Edit2: if spending money I would suggest the $24.99 cadet offer. That gives two superrare Ro Lauren at the moment tomorrow it will be Hippocrates at 12pm EST Ideally you would level the extra superrare and use them on shuttles too. But this really has to do with whether you can level them to level 100 quickly enough to make use of them. Tomorrow's Two Hippocrates could be more useful.
Edit3: I to think it may not be worth your effort. If you could level the crew easy enough, you could buy the 24.99 cadet offer. However, Ro Lauren is going to need Maquis Command outfit and security outfits. True you could send the Maquis faction shuttles to help. However, you would need all your copies leveled quickly to help.
If on Wednesday I decided I was going to go for it, I would only do it after buying both the $24.99 and $9.99 cadet offers. Further I have to be able to level a 2nd Hippocrates and a second Ro Lauren. Also if I get a legendary Tuvok I need to level him too. But really Wednesday was the better time to make this decision.
Every hour into the event makes it unlikely you can hit 400k.
The best choice is wait for an event where you can send all shuttles better than 85% success rate. That is when you try to get the rank 1500 or better. So long as you want the legendary in that event. If that event is a rerun, then 400k threshold will have the legendary.
At 54.5 k Points, so should easily stumble into the 5* Item for Ro.